Tag: title shot

We weren’t the only ones left scratching our heads when it was announced that Dan Henderson and Daniel Cormier would meet at UFC 175. It’s not that we felt the fight is a squash match or anything, because Henderson’s victory over Mauricio Rua at Fight Night 38 proved that he is never one to be counted out entirely. It’s just that, well, up until the point that Hendo turned Rua’s nose into a pancake, he looked every bit as stiff and sluggish as one would expect a 43-year-old MMA fighter with nearly as many battles on his resume to look.

Couple Henderson’s recent performance(s) with the fact that Cormier is a much younger (in fight years, at least), stronger, and faster version of Rua, and that the matchup will serve as Henderson’s first sans-TRT, and you might begin to understand our surprise at the booking of this fight…

In any case, the one aspect of TRT that Belfort has remained steadfast in defending since his usage was made public was the idea that he *needed* it to compete with today’s younger fighters, who are practically overflowing with the stuff. “Basically what TRT is for me is to not be at a disadvantage,” Belfort has stated, “Low testosterone is something that can cause serious health problems and even death. You can have problems, big problems, if it’s untreated. So the treatment is for you to live longer and have a better life by having less health problems.”

OK, so Belfort basically needs TRT to survive, is what he’s saying –which, fine, we’ve heard that excuse before. But you’d think a statement like that would essentially condemn Belfort to TRT usage for the rest of his career (or life, really), because were he to suddenly stop using TRT, it would prove that he never really needed it in the first place, right?

Lyoto is on stand-by list waiting for the winner of Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen. I think it is almost impossible for Chael to win this bout, but anything may happen. A fight is a fight, but it has already been scheduled, there’s no history about it.

Lyoto is the number one contender and he is only waiting to see who is going to be the winner of this fight. He is not convinced about Jones…he is not convinced from that loss.

In the whole welterweight/middleweight title/super-fight mess of excitment and speculation going on right now, number one 170 pound contender Johny Hendricks is one of the few people giving real talk. “I’m not going to fight unless it’s for a belt,” Hendricks told MMAJunkie Radio Friday.

The former NCAA Division I wrestling national champion solidified himself as the number one contender to Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight crown with five straight wins, his last three against Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Martin Kampmann. Despite earning his shot, Hendricks is far from a lock to be the next one to fight St. Pierre.

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is chasing a super fight with the Canadian and St. Pierre surrogates are lobbying for his next fight to be against his rival Nick Diaz. Diaz is currently serving a suspension for testing positive for marijuana metabolites before his last fight, a loss to Carlos Condit.

The UFC held a press conference in New York City today for the May 5 UFC on Fox 3 show, which we would have covered live, had they not rejected our credential application AGAIN. Thankfully we still have access to these things via YouTube.

Probably the most interesting tidbit to come out of the event was Dana White’s assertion that the winner of the Jim Miller-Nate Diaz bout would likely be the next in line for a title shot after Anthony Pettis.

It makes sense, even though Nate is only 2-0 in his current run as a lightweight and Jim lost his last bout against Ben Henderson. When you look at the fact that Diaz beat Melvin Guillard and Donald Cerrone as a lightweight, has only lost to Gray Maynard, Clay Guida and Joe Stevenson in the Octagon at 155 and he has never been finished and that prior to losing to the current champ, Miller had only ever been defeated by Frankie Edgar and Maynard, it makes sense.

Really, besides giving Edgar another shot — which he really should have to earn, considering he lost fair and square to Henderson — who else deserves a crack at the belt?

Tickets for the May 5 event, that takes place in New Jersey at the Izod Center, go on sale tomorrow.

In an interview “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” did with FightHubTV.com’s Marcos Villegas yesterday, the dangerous UFC middleweight touched on a number of topics, including why he’d take the fight, what it would mean to his friendship with Silva and why he doesn’t think Chael Sonnen deserves the next crack at the belt.

A source close to the camp of UFC middleweight contender Demian Maia has informed Cage Potato that the Brazilian is expected to be offered the next middleweight title shot against the winner of the Anderson Silva/Thales Leites bout (in other words, Silva) late this summer.

There’s no official date set, but our source says Maia’s camp is expecting the bout to take place in late August, which would most likely put it at UFC 102 in Portland, Ore. The middleweight title bout would certainly bolster a card that’s rumored to be headlined by Randy Couture returning home to the Pacific Northwest to take on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

If anybody’s earned a shot at the middleweight strap, it’s Maia. The undefeated submissions wiz made Chael Sonnen look like a novice in his last bout, and his jiu-jitsu skills would offer a challenge that we haven’t yet seen Silva face during his run as UFC champion.

“I don’t plan on letting [Rashad Evans] stay champ for long. I thought I was winning that fight. I made a mistake, got caught and dropped. I was winning the fight up until then. People ask me about retiring after that fight. It wasn’t like I got my ass kicked and then got knocked out. I was winning the fight, got sloppy for a second and got caught. I made a mistake.”

[Sigh] I can’t help but feel like he’s using the old ‘got caught’ explanation as a crutch here. Yes, he got caught in the sense that he left himself wide open and was absolutely hammered by a right hand from Evans. But he wasn’t really winning the fight up until then. He wasn’t losing, either. The fight was fairly even with little significant action. And then he got knocked out.